Newman speaks at the ribbon cutting to dedicate the new Atlantic Avenue Gateway Art Feature Project that showcases her art.

Newman speaks at the ribbon cutting to dedicate the new Atlantic Avenue Gateway Art Feature Project that showcases her art.

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Workers install one of six colorful columns of Michelle Newman's public art gateway to Delray Beach, Fla.

Workers install one of six colorful columns of Michelle Newman's public art gateway to Delray Beach, Fla.

Photo: Mark Randall / South Florida Sun Sentinel

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Workers position a curvilinear column of San Antonio artist Michelle Newman's gateway public art project in Delray Beach, Fla.

Workers position a curvilinear column of San Antonio artist Michelle Newman's gateway public art project in Delray Beach, Fla.

Photo: Courtesy Photo

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A 26-foot column designed by San Antonio artist Michelle Newman for Delray Beach, Florida's gateway to downtown goes into place.

A 26-foot column designed by San Antonio artist Michelle Newman for Delray Beach, Florida's gateway to downtown goes into place.

Photo: Courtesy Photo

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Newman's signature is on one of the panels she designed for the public art “gateway.”

Newman's signature is on one of the panels she designed for the public art “gateway.”

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San Antonio artist Michelle Newman's design for a gateway art project in Delray Beach, Fla., featured six large columns adorned with a symbolic visual vocabulary reflecting the Atlantic coast city's history and culture.

San Antonio artist Michelle Newman's design for a gateway art project in Delray Beach, Fla., featured six large columns adorned with a symbolic visual vocabulary reflecting the Atlantic coast city's history and

“It's what turned me on to the fiber arts,” says Newman, 62, who has lived in San Antonio for more than 30 years.

The nationally renowned artist, author of “Handpainting Fabric” and an upcoming book on batik, returned to her roots with a major public art project for Delray Beach, Fla., a community of 65,000 known as “the Village by the Sea.”

“It's like the little Riviera,” Newman said of the city, “a real hot spot that has this sort of European vibe with all these galleries, boutiques, cafés and coffee houses.”

Newman's design for a “gateway” to the city's vibrant downtown from Interstate 95 was recently introduced to the community at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“This is a monumental day in my life,” Newman said by phone after the ceremony, which attracted about 100 people, including local government officials and a dozen members of the Seminole tribe in full regalia.

Consisting of six curvilinear columns 26 feet tall and 8 feet wide staggered along each side of Atlantic Avenue, the $1.2 million gateway — part of the city's master plan adopted in 2002 — was more than 10 years in the making.

A welcome center in the median of the street and a concrete arch spanning it were discarded as gateway concepts before Newman became involved in 2005, when the Delray Beach Center for the Arts hosted an exhibition of her work that attracted city leaders' attention.

“I had just lost my job (with a national arts and crafts company) the day before, so I was pretty traumatized,” Newman said. “Then I got this call out of the blue saying, 'You're the designer for the gateway.' It was truly a miracle, a life-saver.”

Newman got busy researching the community in the southeast corner of Palm Beach County on the Atlantic seashore, which was initially settled by African American farmers who migrated from the Florida Panhandle in the 1880s and has become one of the state's most popular destination spots.

What the diminutive white-haired artist found was a rich history and culture, which she incorporated symbolically into the bright fabric skin (similar to the weather-proof material used for airport canopies) covering the totem-like columns.

“I wanted to tell the story of the community visually,” she said.

Lit from within by thousands of LED lights, the public piece glows when the sun goes down.

The artistic vocabulary Newman created for the columns encompasses the flora and fauna, the ethnic diversity and the cultural history of the city.

It includes the saw palmetto palm so vital to the Seminoles, as well as Seminole geometric symbols of water, turtles, lightning and birds. The pineapple is a recurring motif, representing Japanese farmers who arrived at the turn of the 20th century. The frog and other traditional West African Andrinkra marks are prominent, while a Victorian architectural accent from the window trim of Delray Beach's historic Sundy House has been incorporated as a floating design element.

The gladiola flowers are a reminder of the social and economic importance of gladiola cultivation in the late 1940s and early 1950s, an industry that inspired the city's annual Gladiola Festival (now known as the Delray Affair).

The more recent arrival of Haitian immigrants and their vibrant culture and music is depicted through the use of a bright tropical palette.

“We are a community over a hundred years old that is very ethnically diverse and values its history,” Colanna said. “I don't know if you've ever been to South Florida, but there are a lot of strip-center communities — a lot of historical buildings have been mowed down. Delray isn't like that. We restore and renovate and reuse old buildings, and the city consequently has a lot of charm and character. Michelle really did her research and was able to capture the community in a symbolic sense and merge all those aspects into her design.”

“We wanted people to feel they have arrived at some place special,” she added, “and we think we've accomplished that with the gateway. It really has a wow factor.”